The Adventures of Zac'Reegar
by Mrrego01
Summary: Few people in Omega are allowed to have so many unanswered questions surround them, and this quarian is no exception. Who is Zac'Reegar? Why does Aria keep inviting him to Afterlife? Why hasn't that suit-rat finished his pilgrimage already? And why is he so obsessed with human food? Luckily, the answers are one conversation with the quarian away. If you are willing to believe him.
1. Chapter 1

Zac'Reegar nar Usela was unfortunately very familiar with the wake-up call of batarians shouting and pounding on his door with the threat of "tearing his suit open and feeding his body to the varren ''. What came as a surprise to him was the added request phrase, "Aria doesn't like to be kept waiting." Aria had never asked to meet him. Hell, he almost died trying to introduce himself to her just to rightfully take credit for protecting a sector of her turf. He quickly thought up all the things he could've done to invoke the wrath of the pirate queen, but ultimately came up blank. He clipped his lucky shotgun to his back and finally answered the pager that had been buzzing in tandem with the pounding.  
"Aria you say?" He asked, raising an eyebrow beneath his purple-tinted visor. "Whatever for?" He added with a twinge of a cheeky smile.

"Open the damn door, suit rat." The batarian responded predictably. "If it were up to me you'd've been killed twenty minutes ago, but Aria has made it very clear she wants you alive. I won't ask again." The batarian's voice was incredibly impatient. He really shouldn't have told Zac he was needed alive, it gave him all the more excuse to be an ass every step along the way. Zac signaled the door open and stepped into the frame.

"How do I look? Do you think she'll like the suit?"

Zac's snark was met with a sharp jab in the stomach, causing him to topple over. He figured he deserved that and opted to dial it back with the sass. He got back to his feet with a grunt and the batarian and his men turned to lead the way. A human and an asari tailed behind Zac to make sure he didn't try anything stupid. Zac followed a few paces behind the leader and smiled to himself. Zac'Reegar was many things, A gentleman, a mercenary, a freak of nature, a heartbreaker, a con artist, and many many other illustrious titles, but stupid enough to cross Aria T'loak was not one of them. He followed behind expeditiously hoping to whatever deity would listen that whatever Aria wanted from him, he could give it.

Afterlife was as busy and crowded as it ever was. Zac would've been lying if he said he hadn't spent his fair share of time within the walls of that place. It was one of the first directions he was pointed in when he got off his ship to start his pilgrimage. He had quickly learned two rules which became increasingly relevant with each step Zac and his entourage took toward Aria's platform. 1) Nobody cares what happens to quarians in Omega, and 2) Don't ever fuck with Aria. The batarian and his troupe slowly broke off from their formation until it was back to just the batarian who Zac had first met. They stopped within a few paces of Aria, who toiled at a datapad while Zac was scanned. "We found your suit rat." The batarian announced.

"Come on, you couldn't think of a better insult than that one again? You had all that time to think of one" Zac grinned. The batarian growled and walked away as Aria waved him out. Zac shut his mouth as soon as he made the mistake of looking Aria in the eyes. There was the suffocatingly powerful aura of control and strength that she constantly exuded, but Zac had met people like that before. Her eyes, on the other hand, were unlike anything he had ever experienced before. They seemed to slowly cook his heart and soul and pierce through every thought he had ever had. Asari, in general, made him very uncomfortable, and their eyes were largely the reason for the discomfort.

"Sit." She ordered. Zac hesitated for a second, then quickly moved to seat himself across the couch from Aria. She seemed to watch closely as Zac wrung his hands apprehensively waiting for some kind of command to have him taken out back. "Loosen up, will you? I wouldn't have brought you all the way out here to have you killed." She said in a tone that did nothing to ease Zac's worries. Nonetheless, Zac exhaled and tried to lounge a little more casually.

"Well, then I should thank you. He said genuinely. "It was a bit of shock to hear you've called for me personally. I hope I can help."

"I'm sure you can..." She mused ominously as she leaned back. "You seem to get around Omega quite a bit, Zac'Reegar. You've made quite a name for yourself. It's not everyday people see a biotic quarian." She seemed to sound genuinely impressed. Zac glanced at the coil of tubes that ran up his arms to his back that transfused asari blood through his body.

"It certainly gives me an unexpected advantage." He admitted trying very hard not to sound as proud as he was. "Is that what this is about then? You want me to infiltrate someplace and tear it up?" He asked hastily, eager to be away from Aria's eyes. She furrowed her brow and shook her head.

"Remember who you're talking to, Reegar. If I needed mercenaries I would just get mercenaries." She said sharply, purposefully looking Zac in the eyes. She must've known that he was uncomfortable making eye contact. He swallowed hard and nodded.

"Then to what do I owe this summons then?" He asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"You met with a volus named Vin Olar here a few months ago." She began. Memories began to flood Zac as he heard the name. "But then the two of you disappeared from Omega for a while, then he vanished out of the terminus system and out of my area of awareness." She concluded leaning forward at Zac who was now pressed back against the couch trying to avoid her gaze. "I want you to tell me the story." She finished

"That's it?" Zac asked after a few seconds of silence. Aria nodded.

"Your people are storytellers." She insisted. "It shouldn't be any harder than whatever you had to do to get your biotics." She attempted to lighten the mood, it worked a little bit.

"My people are scientists... I am a storyteller." He corrected. "And if you want to know the story of Vin, then you should know that it all starts right here in Afterlife..." He began, making himself comfortable on the couch. Aria clicked a recorder and sat back, watching him.


	2. Chapter 2: Vin Olar 1

Zac had just finished meeting with someone who had employed his services, a batarian slave trader who was dissatisfied with the work Zac had done for him. "You didn't really expect me to help you transport quarian slaves did you?" Zac said over the music of Afterlife. There were already three red dots on his chest from the pistols each of the casually dressed guards had pulled on him under the table.

"You agreed to work with a slaver." The batarian replied exasperated. "I gave you a job to protect that caravan of slaves and you almost immediately freed all of them." He squinted each of his eyes and tilted his head to the right. "Do you have any idea how much money you've cost me?" He nearly shouted over the music. Zac had danced this dance enough times to know where this was going.

"So... I take it I won't be getting the second half of that payment." He grinned beneath his mask. His fingers suddenly glowed with dark matter. The batarian growled and barked something in his language to the guards. No sooner had the batarian made a sound, Zac flung one of the guards down the stairs leading up to the platform, sending him tumbling into a swarm of patrons at the bottom. The drunk patrons (largely human and asari) belligerently hurled insults at the guard, who was now unable to join the fight. With his other arm, Zac brought his lucky shotgun up, leapt onto the table to avoid the initial gunfire and blasted the guard on his former boss' left square in the chest. The last guard had a look of frenzied panic shortly before being trampled by his boss to get the hell away from Zac. It was all the same to him that the boss ran away. He didn't want the entire batarian slave ring on his tail for the rest of his life. The gunfire mixed with the now retaliating batarian guard had successfully turned this floor of afterlife into one giant brawl. Bottles were thrown, shots were fired, chairs were flung. It was the kind of scene that made Zac proud to live in Omega. The final guard got up and scrambled away, firing a clumsy shot or two over his shoulder at Zac. Zac braced himself and channeled enough dark matter to biotic charge his routed enemy. He zoomed across the club with a hum, slamming into the batarian and snapping his bones on impact. Zac took a restabling breath to bring his heart rate down a notch. He wasn't ready or willing to let the rush of this bar fight spill into the rest of his day. He slunk out of the room and sauntered down the stairs towards the exit. As he took a breath of the filtered Omega air he unconsciously scanned the plaza similarly to prey scans for any predators. Zac hated that he did this instinctively, it made him feel weak, but it was simply how you live your life in Omega.

As he scanned he saw the ever familiar sight of batarians hassling humans, krogan escorting people who thought themselves important enough to be escorted, vorcha scuttling through the streets doing God knows what, but something caught his eye that he hadn't seen before. For the first time in his admittedly very abnormal lifetime, he saw a volus begging for , of course, are too proud to beg for anything from anyone, especially on Omega. The volus are such shrewd businessmen that it only takes a volus a week in Omega before they make more money than Zac could make in three months. This volus seemed different than ones he had normally seen perusing Omega. His enviro-suit was plated at the shoulder blades and sleeves for starters. Zac casually walked perpendicular to the volus to try to scope out any more information.

"Please *wheeze* I need help finding a lost quarian - She has a red and black envirosuit - and a purple tinted visor." The volus told a gang of batarians who had offered their help. Offered was a generous word, it was more like sharks sizing up a seal.

"How much are you willing to fork over for this quarian?" The leader of this motley gang asked with a sneer. The volus looked more exasperated than a volus usually does.

"Please!" He wheezed again. The batarian tilted his head to the right.

"Look, volus, I don't care much for you or your quarian, but I'm willing to help you find your slave and save you money. That's more than anyone else here will get you." He took a step toward the volus, his gang followed suit. "So I'm going to ask you one more time before I start naming the price, how much are you willing to fork over for this quarian?" He growled. Before the volus could give his response, Zac cleared his throat and stepped closer to the part.

"If I may." Zac began in a tone he knew always ended up with him getting into trouble. "If a quarian is wandering around Omega without being familiar with the station, sending a pack of ravenous and grimy batarians is only going to make her that much more elusive." He continued, slowly making his way over to disperse the group. The gang and dovetailed out, leaving the leader toe to toe with Zac. "No offense about the grimy part, of course." He grinned beneath his helmet.

"Stay out of this, Reegar. He's asking for help finding someone, not con senile old women out of their life savings." The batarian hissed. Zac shrugged.

"Lola is doing just fine for herself, I can assure you." He turned his attention over the batarian's shoulder to look at the volus. "Send me after your quarian and I'll have her back to you before the next live krogan is born." He said nonchalantly. The volus recoiled slightly at the morbid comment. "Or you can leave it to these batarians, who are just as likely to steal her from you and keep her as their own slaves, I just busted a couple of batarians for that very thing." Zac stepped back from the batarian gaggle and shrugged. The batarians glared at Zac once more for good measure, but turned back to the volus who, despite having a covered face, seemed to be lost in serious contemplation.

"What is your ship name, Reegar?" The volus finally wheezed. Zac squinted his eyes. Volus were definitely not the race to care about a quarian's ship name. No race really cared, but on that list volus were squarely on the bottom. Zac'Reegar wondered what this volus could possibly gain from knowing his ship name? Would he even be able to tell if Zac was lying about it?

"Nar Usela..." Zac finally answered. The volus nodded confidently.

"Her name is Viki'Misha nar Neema. Whichever one of you finds her first will get 300,00 credits." The volus said, without breaking eye contact with Zac. Zac waved his hand dismissively.

"That reward is too rich for my tastes. We can discuss the reward when I bring her to you." He snarked, stealing a glare at the batarians one last time before heading toward the residential district. Zac had taken this job thinking it was another chance to liberate an enslaved quarian, but he now wondered if he had stumbled into something just a little deeper than that.


End file.
